Putiki Pa

A view of the interior of Putiki Pa on the Whanganui River in 1850, based on a now-lost oil painting by John Alexander Gilfillan. In April 1847 an attack on the Gilfillan family farm near Wanganui by a party of six young upriver Maori resulted in the deaths of his wife Mary and three of their children. Maori from Putiki played a key role in the capture of those responsible for these killings.

Putiki was the principal Maori settlement near the Whanganui River mouth. It is on the southern banks of the river opposite the modern-day city of Wanganui. Maori from Putiki signed Edward Jerningham Wakefield's deed of purchase for Wanganui, although prominent Putiki chiefs such as Te Anaua later described the purchase as 'being of no significance'. The Church Missionary Society established a mission station next to the settlement and many of the pa's significant leaders converted to Christianity. In the conflict that threatened Wanganui in 1847 and again in 1864 Putiki Maori fought with the Crown in battles against Maori from the upper reaches of the Whanganui River.